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A leader's success is measured by their impact on every section of the organization. This is because an organization's success is not measured in parts but as a sum of the whole. Thus, leaders must have diverse leadership skills to lead effectively and deliver influence in leadership.
These leadership skills get utilized as one exercise formal authority in different levels of leadership. Take, for example, a Chief Financial Officer who must use decision and problem-solving skills when allocating money to different departments with different dynamics.
For a leader to be effective, they need to master multiple roles, some of which may not be reflected in the job description. This essentially encompasses a leader's role in leadership and management.
This can be categorized into leadership behaviors and roles that an effective leader should try to master.
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Delegating helps get work done and gives your team members a sense of self-determination or autonomy. Delegating responsibilities is key to improving efficiency and boosting performance. No leader can do all things at a given time.
According to a Gallup study, companies with solid delegators achieved higher growth than leaders who delegate less.
To be a successful leader, you need to build up your delegation skills as it improves productivity and maximizes the contributions of your team members.
Here are some reasons why delegation in a company or organization is essential:
Delegation supports the development of new skills among new leaders. It also helps the team leaders to be flexible without being confined to one responsibility.
Delegating responsibilities helps bring in a new perspective on solving day-to-day problems that may arise. New responsibilities help them build effective communication, project management, and teamwork skills.
Learning how to delegate effectively helps leaders build a decent work environment and ensures accountability within the organization.
Any individual in a leadership role must find a balance between tactical and strategic thinking to be successful. Both of these demands attention and time.
A study by Strategic Thinking Institute identified that 96% of leaders said they lacked time to think strategically. When leaders delegate responsibilities, they free up time for strategic thinking, allowing them to focus on other tasks such as coaching and leading the team.
Before a team leader delegates tasks, they need to identify the tasks to be delegated. Prioritizing tasks helps leaders identify the most critical studies to be charged and who should be responsible for performing these tasks.
Tasks that are both highly important and urgent might also be candidates for delegation, but perhaps to a more experienced team member.
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A leader assumes the role of a coach by enabling individuals in their team succeed at achieving the whole organization's goals. The role of a leader is to guide, develop, and deliver feedback to those around them to help them be prepared to step up when opportunities arise
A coach helps their team members achieve their long and short-term professional development goals by strengthening their resolve to overcome challenges.
A perfect example is the Chicago Bulls in the National Basketball Association(NBA). The team was led by Phill Jackson, who helped them win six championships in their dominant era. Even though he did not play, he helped the team to be highly motivated and consistently perform at a higher level.
Coaching as a leadership role is essential in building a successful organization.
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For a leader to be successful, he or she must learn to communicate effectively. This is one of the fundamentals of leadership. Leadership styles such as being open to feedback and communication are essential to creating a successful organization.
Providing direction, discussing important issues, and relaying information is difficult if a leader does not possess strong leadership communication skills.
Leaders should improve their skills when it comes to communication. A communicating leader inspires action and persuades those around them to follow their vision by confidently speaking to a group or individually.
Influential leaders should try to communicate well and learn to develop their skills to build trust and a bond with their team members.
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Successful leaders often talk less and listen more. Individuals in leadership roles should try to adopt this skill. Listening is a potent tool that leaders can possess, and it helps leaders build workplace loyalty and trust.
Listening also shows your team that you value their contribution.
In today's work environment, technology is being used at almost all levels of an organization, and avenues of information sharing have increased. Listening can be a significant issue, as some of your employees would feel neglected.
Being in a leadership role means you have to sharpen your listening skills and find a way to listen to your employees actively.
Actively listening will ensure that your employees feel confident that their contributions are being appreciated. Through this, employee morale will always be high, and their productivity will always be high, boosting the organization's performance.
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Great leaders are characterized by how they maintain balance in the entire organization—a balance between guiding and leading people while maintaining authority. Great leaders are great team players.
Being a team player means you can listen to input from others and take action based on that input to improve your team's performance. As a leader, you will use this same experience to provide clear, achievable goals, tasks, and other organizational expectations.
Great leaders push an organization forward by collaborating with their team members to achieve goals that have been set.
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Conflict management reduces adverse outcomes that may affect the company's performance. A leader needs to have some conflict-resolving skills and relationship management as part of emotional intelligence is vital in such situations. How a leader manages conflict will determine whether the outcome will be destructive, positive, or negative.
Once you assume a leadership role, you must be candid and receptive. You need to ensure they table issues that need to be discussed, and also, you need to understand that it is okay for conflict to arise in a workplace.
Influential leaders know how to resolve the conflict openly and ensure that the parties involved come together and work towards a resolution. For a leader to be successful, they need to know how to manage conflict in ways that can build productive relationships.
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Technically brilliant people usually occupy leadership roles. Leadership positions need strategists who can make good decisions that benefit a company in the long run. Visionary and bold leaders who have the confidence to take a company to new heights are admired.
A great strategy can lead to short and long-term success. Strategic leaders can achieve excellent and consistent results through disciplined and planned processes.
Focusing on essential priorities and developing systems that empower people can create an environment where people collaborate and translate their visions into success.
Working under a leader who understands the nature of an organization, that can visualize, plan and execute strategies, break down internal walls and bring groups together is a role many wish their leader could play.
Strategic thinking is essential in performance, and an excellent strategic plan can benefit an organization's eventual outcome.
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Leadership roles require a dynamic individual who can quickly move out of a present column to a future column. A change agent evaluates things and alters those that are not working while adopting new techniques.
Being a change agent means you can incorporate new techniques, build new realities to improve the company's position and help utilize available resources to boost productivity.
Whether big or small, every company change needs a good change agent who will promote, champion, and enable a change implementation environment. A change agent can guide and facilitate the change effort to drive the organization forward.
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Leadership requires vision, self-confidence, and charisma, usually handy during negotiation. Leadership frequently requires negotiation and good leaders are effective negotiators.
To persuade people to follow your lead, you need to appeal to their preferences, effectively communicate with them, and sell your vision, all of which are part of effective negotiation.
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Great leaders know how to balance reason and emotions and have the decision-making skills to impact their teams positively. Making decisions is no easy fate and requires someone who can make them without bias.
Good decision-making skills also mean building critical thinking skills to ascertain the problem and develop a solution that benefits the company and employees.
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At Highrise, we can help you understand your own authentic leadership by refining your key strengths through our leadership development plan so that you can better: manage your team, manage up, give and receive feedback, negotiate and influence. This will enable you to understand your leadership roles better and further accelerate your leadership potential.
Reach out today for a demo on how to get started.
